Frustrated at classes that end with fewer students than you started with? Disappointed that more clients don’t sign up for the next round? All the more perplexed because your class evaluations are glowing, your rates competitive, your reputation strong, and your class schedule full of choices? More often than not the problem is the curriculum. […]
Training Practices
Training Practices
Open Enrollment Classes
Filling classes can be challenging, particularly for smaller businesses. So many stars must align for potential clients: The right class on the right day of the week at the right time and starting on the right date. Larger, established facilities offering a full schedule can stagger multiple classes to meet this challenge, but new and […]
Training the Clients
Most trainers agree that working with clients is the most important—and most challenging—part of the job. Even when the trainer does the training in board and train or day training situations, the work with the client remains the central ingredient to success. Transferring complex skills and understanding to a human is tremendously more involved than […]
Mastering Client Paperwork
If only it were just about training the dogs! But of course it isn’t. Many other responsibilities, tasks, and details vie for a dog trainer’s attention. Client-based paperwork is not the least among them. Interview forms, write-ups or reports, homework sheets—dog trainers spend more time at their desks than people might think. I often work […]
Got Confidence? Treating Separation Anxiety
By Malena DeMartini, author of Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs My second client ever was a separation anxiety case. The dog’s name was Guinness, like the beer, and his owners had found him sickly and tattered, scavenging for food somewhere on a California back road. They rescued him, bought him life-saving medical treatments, and nursed […]
